Mainstreaming climate change mitigation actions in Nepal: Influencing factors and processes

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the influencing factors and the processes for incorporating climate change mitigation actions into policies in the non-environment sector in Nepal. We use semi-structured interviews with policy actors such as national and sub-national policymakers, and respondents from the private sector and international development organizations active in Nepal. We also use thematic, narrative, and focused coding to analyze narrative data obtained from 12 respondents, and qualitative analysis of textual data from six non-environment sector policies to generate insights into the mainstreaming of climate change mitigation actions. A major finding from the study is that global environment-related initiatives like the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, and the green growth concept that aims to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, are influencing the policy discourse in Nepal. Consequently, climate change mitigation actions are integrated either as add-ons or as overriding policy objectives in non-environment sector policies. Our conceptualization of mainstreaming moves beyond the mere integration of policy objectives to focus on the collaborative practices of policy actors, the influencing factors, and the processes for incorporating climate change mitigation actions across non-environment sector policies.